CHAPTER FOURTY-ONE
A lesson in history
Maxima sits in her place besides James her hands clutching her quill so tight her knuckles are white with strain. The room feels hot, too hot and her cardigan feels abrasive against her skin but there is something about this topic that has her in overdrive. In all her studies she had never heard of morgana, not of anything significant or anything more than a passing mention.
Yet the wand, her wand had chosen Maxima, and she had to know why. She had to know why the magic called out in the dark, she needed a reason. Her heart thudded against her ribcage, like a trapped bird beating itself with its own wings.
"Are you okay" whispers James concerned; he looks so much like Harry in this moment that her heart reels. She nods in response, neither trusting her mouth to form words or for bins not to scold her for speaking.
Bins scratches the words "MORGANA" on a chalk board and begins pacing in front of it. He is a lean wizard, clothed in dark blue robes, his hair blond with silver strands. Despite is terrible timber and tone Maxima trusts him to tell the truth.
"Morgana, also known as morgana le Fay" Bins begins, and Maxima swore she has never listened so intently in her life. She is now nothing more than an eleven-year-old girl, but this knowledge feels so very important. Her hair crackles with magical tension that she tries to rein in.
I am in control
She mutters as she steels herself to listen. James has an eyebrow quirked in her direction but is leaned back in his chair to provide commentary to both Remus and Peter. Remus is a bundle of nerves all tense jaw and stiff grip, but peter engages easily laughing almost too loud more than once.
On the other hand, Sirius, for the second time this class, curses "bloody Slytherins" as Thea shoves his books back to his side of the desk and he sits grumpily with his arms crossed.
"Morgana is known as a beautiful woman, a healer even in the muggle world, but she is in fact one of the most powerful witches to have ever lived" Bins speaks his voice a toneless monotone that James mimes to his friends his metaphorical bleeding ears.
She's good. A good witch. A healer. Maxima lets out a breath she didn't know she was holding. She touches her wand, she only now realizes that what she thought was a dark wand was, in fact, a beacon of good, of light.
"Many people, especially witches pray to Morgana, the same way Wizards praise Merlin" bins continue to a mostly comatose audience. Large sections of the classroom look to be on the verge of slumber.
Bins continues, making eye contact with Maxima, perhaps because she is one of the few that is but only awake but eagerly scrawling notes. "What these witches don't know is that Morgana was also a seductress, a shapeshifter, many battles both began and ended at her word. She was a warrior and a leader." Maxima shakes her head, all the laws of magic she had memorizes shaking around in her brain. Her hand shot into the air.
She had promised herself she would rein in her swot-like behavior, but on this she could not manage to restrain herself.
"Professor, I thought that all magic had limits that true shape shifting was impossible." She states, the question of truth implied but Bins is already shaking his head.
"Maxima Potter, is it? That is somewhat true, 10 points to Slytherin" he looks around, but her housemates don't react, only Severus manages to look up from him parchment to nod in her direction. A good thing, points were good, it felt strange that the house she had always hoped would lose points, was the one she now accumulated points for.
Bins continued to pace in front of the classroom "Magic is give and take, great magic requires great sacrifice, and nature always requires a balance. But Morgana was the exception to this, many have speculated that her magic comes from somewhere else, somewhere beyond nature." His voice almost holds an eerie tone as he lectures, he nods as lily who eagerly sticks her hand into the air.
"Professor wouldn't Morgana just be an animagi, I heard that they can take the shape of any animal" Maxima can see herself in lily, the Hermione version of herself in the muggleborn girl so desperate to prove her worth she had dove into at least second year readings.
"Ah Ms. Evans, While it is true that animagi can take the shape of an animal, which morgana was known to do. She could do something animagi could not, he could take the face of another, witch, or wizard, transforming herself into them. "
Silence holds fast in the room. Morgana was a thing a nightmares. The ache of magic curled through Maxima's veins both cool and painful. She breathed slowly, trying to remember what snape had taught her in their trainings, but those memories felt harder and harder to access and she hoped that she wasn't forgetting all that was so important.
Purple fames shot to the front of the room and maxima fell from her seat. An ice-like structure covered the front desk, and maxima fell to the floor having lost consciousness.
"Nonono, Max!" James called shaking her, she could feel him jostling her, but she was so tired. It was like being underwater, she could hear James just above the water, but she couldn't reach him.
Sirius was also crouched next to her, and in a spark of inspiration he grabbed her hand and poured his water bottle all over her. She shot up like lightening at stricken her, her eyes a glaring violent hue.
"Your eyes" he murmurs bewildered but a second look and they are the same striking blue they had been since he met her. Sirius was sure of what he saw, and he knew something was not right with maxima potter and he was going to find out what.
Maxima doesn't hear his remark, but her cheeks begin to turn a bright pink as she sees all the eyes of the previous half- asleep class all trained on her
"Class is over" bins calls as he unsuccessfully attempts to undo the spell crystalizing his desk as the students settle back into their seats. REDUCTO he utters his wand pointed at the desk but the encasement holds steady.
"you may leave" he tells the students who still sit in their seats, at this command the classroom empties quickly.
"please stay a moment, Ms. Potter and um- Mr. Black" bins requests as Thea and James shoot apologetic looks as they exit the classroom. Maxima looks at Sirius who gazes back at her intently as if he were trying to discover some great mystery.
They were going to give her the boot thought maxima, she had destroyed property. Panic rises in her throat and it tastes sour like bile and sick.
Bins walks towards maxima who still sits in her desk. He lowers himself, crouching to her eye-level, "has this happened before, Ms. Potter, the magic" he speaks in a soft tone as if he is afraid to upset her, as if he is afraid of her. In response, Maxima shakes her head; "never this bad I swear, I'll learn to control it, please…don't make me leave" she pleads but Bins shakes his head.
"I'm not expelling you, but I think you should have a word with our headmaster, I believe he will be expecting you, Mr. Black perhaps you could accompany her, it wouldn't do to have anyone wandering the castle alone. A walk might help wake you up from your class time kip" to maxima's surprise Sirius turned bright red at the suggestion he had been sleeping in class. She hadn't expected him to care, his older self certainly would not have. But this younger self, while bearing some similarities to the Sirius black she knew, was but a stranger with a familiar face.
Maxima and Sirius climb the staircase easily, bins instructions clear. "Sirius, thank you for what you did. I don't know what happened, I swear I wasn't trying to hurt anyone" she says and he stops moving to look at her. There was something about the way she uttered those words that had him believing her, trusting her "I know".
"do you think hell expel me" she asks him, trying to quell her anxiety, bins said she wouldn't be, but that wasn't really his decision to make. Sirius laughs a sudden boyish chuckle "they'd be mad to, the daughter of Dorthea Black, even my mum is terrified of her and I guess by extension also you" he grinned in her direction, it was hard for him to reconcile the girl with the evil house she slept in. Maxima grinned, hoping his words were true.
A walk that was almost too short and they arrived at two large doors where Maxima knew Dumbledore's office to be. The large door to the office swung open at their arrival.
"Ms. Potter please come in" A loud voice boomed, and she took a tentative step forward unable to see the headmaster. "As for you Mr. black, I believe Mr.'s Potter, Pettigrew and Lupin are awaiting your return rather anxiously" Sirius nodded and after a long look towards maxima he turned to make his descent down the stairs.
"Ms. Potter please have a seat" Dumbledore gestures to a cerulean velvet armchair across from a large wooden desk. He is clothed in purple robes and his hands are adorned with rings in various sizes. He sits across from her, crossing his legs in almost a feminine way and offers her a sweet. "stabbing strawburst" he offers popping one into his mouth. Maxima never understood why most of wizarding candy all sounded like they were intended to commit bodily harm, she shook her head at the offer wincing as the candy in the bowl moved as if ready to attack. Absolutely unhinged she thought.
His office was expansive, a pensive and a plethora of other magical items covering the surfaces. Large windows brought light into the room that the dungeons severely lacked, and maxima sorely missed. She might have liked this place if it weren't for the anxiety coursing through her veins.
"What an exciting history lesson you've had this afternoon" he began looking at her with bespectacled eyes. He looked almost kind like this, but Maxima knew him better, she knew the manipulative wizard he would become, if he wasn't already. She knew what he would take from her.
"What are you going to do to me" she asked suspiciously her hands fastened tightly together in her lap. "my, my, do to you? Nothing, my dear your education here at Hogwarts is quite secure, I'm not sure what I've done to gain such mistrust, but I do profusely apologize." His eyes twinkled kindly, and it took everything from maxima not to pull out her wand as anger replaced her anxiety.
"I will be recommending some private lessons for you to control your magic more, its nothing to fear, sometimes the more gifted struggle more initially" she nodded unsure of what to say, she should scream at him, curse him but she knew that she needed those lessons more than a satisfaction from her hot temper.
"Lessons with whom?" she asked trying to think of which professor had the talent to help in this department and coming up empty. "you'll be stuck with me, I'm afraid, your magic is quite rare and even I have only seen such a thing once before" he looked at her in an odd way, as if he was looking beyond her.
Not beyond her. Into her. She felt his magic attempt to penetrate her mind, a soft prodding, likely an attempt to hide what he was doing. She knew very well that such invasions did not have to be gentle in the slightest. She was grateful for that at least but still blocked his attempt into her mind.
Dumbledore shifted uncomfortably, "Very well, it would seem we have been chatting for too long and lost track of time. Dinner I believe is already served, and I have had a hankering for pudding all day. Now I will see you here after your last class tomorrow" he nodded conclusively giving no opportunity for dispute.
He waved his hand and the doors again opened revealing a pile of Gryffindor boys waiting on the other side. Boys who scrambled to their feet as the doors opened, even Remus looking disheveled, looked relieved to see her. Another push from the headmaster at her mind before he murmured 'interesting' and Maxima exited his office as quickly as her feet would carry her.